Sunday 31 October 2010

Two keywords related to FYP

The presentation will be on two keywords from Keywords for American Studies. The chapters are by Pamela Perry who wrote the chapter titled ‘White’ and Roderick A Ferguson who wrote the chapter ‘Race’.

Both of these chapters focus on some of the aspects in my FYP which is looking at the leaderships of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King jr. during the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. The authors have spoken from different perspectives about whites and race in America with some focus on equality, identity, privilege, and how both these, the white citizens and African American citizens are affected by their different cultures.

My presentation will be focusing on the differences between the white citizens and the African Americans and how they saw the challenges that were faced by different cultures.

2 comments:

  1. I find the idea of "Whitness" not being tied to actual skin tone interesting. The idea that it is in fact an element of social standing indicates how an African American might see this as a desireable characteristic to achieve, rather than something innate.

    From reading the "Race" definition, it reveals how ideologically "Whiteness" is ultimately denied to individuals of a different skin tone (that is, if you ignore individuals such as Barack Obama who manage to transcend ethnicity).

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  2. I found privelage an interesting word that was used when looking at the definition of 'white'. It is interesting that still today such positive connotations are used with 'white' in comparison to the word'Black'.
    And how the performance of White by another ethinicity can lead to a better quality of life through;wage and status in society.
    This shows the lack of progression in America,thus when looking at the civil rights movement it is interesting to see how little America has progressed since then.
    Interesting FYP choice.

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